"HELL NO!" FILE:

05/15/2010

Q: Who or what is responsible for Minerals Management Service's (the division of
the
Interior Department responsible for offshore drilling) change of heart
between
2000 and 2003 on the crucial issue of requiring a remote control switch
for
offshore rigs?

A: Unfettered oil drilling was to
Dick
Cheney’s domestic concerns what the invasion of Iraq was to his foreign
policy—a
core objective, implacably pursued regardless of the risks." (NR)

- 2003, U.S. regulators
decided remote-controlled safeguards needed more study. A report commissioned by
the Minerals Management Service said "acoustic systems are not recommended
because they tend to be very costly." (WSJ)The agency, the
Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote
device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a
well." (WSJ) "Drilling companies questioned its
cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore
drilling. (WSJ)NR)

Galston: "So here’s my question:
what is responsible for Minerals Management Service's (the division of the
Interior Department responsible for offshore drilling) change of heart between
2000 and 2003 on the crucial issue of requiring a remote control switch for
offshore rigs? What we do know is that unfettered oil drilling was to Dick
Cheney’s domestic concerns what the invasion of Iraq was to his foreign policy—a
core objective, implacably pursued regardless of the risks." (